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Parody as resistance, religious broadcasting in the Arab world and China's relationship with the Gulf will all come under scrutiny as academics from Cambridge's Centre of Islamic Studies gather in the Gulf on March 10.

Bill Williams, from the University's Centre for Jewish Studies, has cast new light on the way Britons responded to the desperate plight of Jews fleeing Germany after the Nazis came to power.

A Durham University social media expert is preparing to travel to Uganda as part of a charity's unusual bloggers' mission.

Mike Sanders, from The University of Manchester, says the now obscure South Lancashire Delegate Meeting almost certainly compiled the landmark 'National Chartist Hymn Book' found in Todmorden public library two years ago. After two years of detective work, the expert in Victorian literature has published an article in the international journal Victorian Studies this month detailing what he has learned about the book.

Paul D. Murray, Director of the Durham University's prestigious Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, gives his reaction to the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

—Professor Patrick Boyde A dramatisation taken from one of the greatest stories of all time - Homer's Iliad - is to be performed next week at St John's College.

Narnia, Luke's Gospel and the thoughts of the recently-retired Archbishop of Canterbury are all on the menu for an innovative online discussion among Christians across Britain during Lent.

A photography exhibition opening this week in Gunnersbury Park Museum in Ealing is the outcome of a remarkable collaboration between senior citizens from six different faith communities in West Ealing and Hanwell.

In the late 19th century, Oxford's Bodleian Library and Cambridge University Library were rivals in trying to acquire materials from the Cairo Genizah.

While Shakespeare's mastery of language and stagecraft is universally recognised, the historical accuracy of many of his plays is open to question and the recent discovery of Richard III's remains has reminded us of this.

Rowlands, who is currently Lecturer in Theology and Ministry at King's College, London and also a Research Associate of St Edmund's College, works at the interface of Political, Moral and Practical Theologies.

PA 16/13 Scholars from around the globe are to travel to Nottingham for an international colloquium dedicated to the Qur'ān, the Muslim Scripture.

People's memory for Facebook posts is strikingly stronger than their memory for human faces or sentences from books, according to a new study. The findings shed light on how our memories favour natural, spontaneous writing over polished, edited content, and could have wider implications for the worlds of education, and advertising.

—Abigail Brundin The ground-breaking interdisciplinary project 'Domestic Devotions: The Place of Piety in the Italian Renaissance Home' will aim to demonstrate that religion played a key role i

He was also forthright and disputatious, famously arguing that the Odyssey was not the work of Homer but of an unknown female author from Sicily.

Looking back at accounts of Christmas celebrations, the diaries of explorers are full of salacious details about the food and drink served on Christmas Day, focusing especially on the quality of the roast beef and plum pudding.

An archive of diaries and observations by ordinary people held at the University of Sussex is to be the "guest editor" of the BBC's 'Today ' programme on Boxing Day this year to celebrate Christmases past.

University of Warwick scientists are investigating a disease affecting a Christmas Dinner traditional favourite in order to cut back on waste and reduce use of pesticides.

Researchers at Imperial College London have developed an Artificially Intelligent (AI) computer program that has itself designed a video game for the Christmas season, which can be downloaded for free today. The game developed by the AI computer program is called "A Puzzling Present". In the game, Santa Claus has been sucked into a Christmas present and it is the player's goal to help Santa collect gifts in the 30 Christmas-themed lands, which are filled with deadly holly and other obstacles.

At this time of year newspaper articles will warn of over-indulgence on Christmas day. Experts from the University of Birmingham School of Sport and Exercise Sciences say there is too much focus on the calories consumed during just this one day of the year.

An enterprising graduate who runs his own sustainable clothing company has turned his talents to music in a bid to beat the X-Factor singers to the Christmas number one this Christmas.

Cambridge University Library preserves works of great importance to faith traditions and communities around the world.

As the latest Warner Bros' fantasy blockbuster, The Hobbit, hits our cinema screens this week, a University of Nottingham writer and academic is claiming the film will fulfil deeper needs in modern society than pure entertainment.

Fifteen new community projects have been awarded Heritage Lottery funding with support from the University of Sheffield.

The myths and legends of paganism in pre-Christian Britain are set to be rewritten in a unique event featuring some of the UK's top experts in pagan societies at The University of Nottingham's Institute for Medieval Research next week.

Festive maths students from the University of Sheffield have created formulas for the perfect Christmas tree.

Seasonal artwork bringing together the worlds of folktales and Advent calendars will be unveiled tomorrow (Saturday 1 December 2012) at the University of Sheffield for the month of December, with each window representing a stage in a story derived from classic Russian folktales.

—Raphael Lefevre Ashes of Hama: The Perilous History of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood, by Raphael Lefevre, is to be published in February 2013 and is the first book to explore the history of this secretive Islamic movement.

—Hugh Dalton, Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer (1945-1947) On a chilly March day in 1912 a group of a dozen people sat down in the White Ribbon restaurant on Cambridge's East Road to form the city's Labour Party.

The University of Sheffield's Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy, Angie Hobbs, will join high profile guests and speakers to discuss the moral resourcing of the nation at Westminster Abbey this week (Wednesday 14 November 2012).

"A lot of the alchemists' rhetoric is about protecting the secret: knowledge that is too dangerous to fall into the hands of the ignorant or rapacious."" —Jennifer Rampling We are often told that 'balance' is the key to life - work/family balance, a balanced diet, and so on.